Packet switch and switching method for switching variable length packets

ABSTRACT

A packet switch for switching variable length packets, wherein each of output port interfaces includes a buffer memory for storing transmission packets, a transmission priority controller for classifying, based on a predetermined algorithm, transmission packets passed from a packet switching unit into a plurality of queue groups to which individual bandwidths are assigned respectively, and queuing said transmission packets in said buffer memory so as to form a plurality of queues according to transmission priority in each of said queue groups, and a packet read-out controller for reading out said transmission packets from each of said queue groups in the buffer memory according to the order of transmission priority of the packets while guaranteeing the bandwidth assigned to the queue group.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a packet switch and a switching method,more particularly to a packet switch and a switching method forswitching variable length packets by controlling transmission of packetsaccording to the priority of respective packets. More concretely, thepresent invention relates to a packet switch and a switching methodsuitable for switching variable length packets in the Internet, as wellas intranets, and capable for transmitting the variable length packetsby controlling a bandwidth thereof.

(2) Description of the Related Art

The packet communication is a communication method for transmitting andreceiving data in a form of a packet comprising a predetermined formatof header and a data block obtained by dividing transmission data intoblocks each having a proper length, for example, 48 byte to 1.5 Kbytesin length. A packet switch adopts a so-called stored and forwardswitching method, in which switching of communication data is carriedout after the communication data as stored temporarily in the switch, sothat it is able to apply a variety of control to the packets passingthrough the switch.

In the case of the Internet coming into wide use rapidly in recentyears, data is communicated as variable length packets with an IP(Internet Protocol) header respectively. Therefore, a packet switchingtechnique is essential to each node for connecting a network to another.An inter-networks connecting apparatus (node apparatus) such as a routeris also provided with the packet switching function even if it is notcalled a “packet switch” actually. Consequently, in the presentinvention, every network apparatus provided with the packet switchingfunction, including the node apparatus having such a specific name asrouter, will be referred to as a packet switch.

As a prior art related to such the packet switching, a router isdisclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.7-135512. Theprior art intends to provide a router with a function for controllingthe transfer of received packets according to the priority thereof and afunction for controlling the discard of packets performed when a buffercongestion occurs. According to the prior art, packets received by apacket receiving unit are queued in a buffer memory by a prioritycontrol unit according to the transmission priority and the discardpriority of each packet, then they are transmitted to a packettransmission unit according to the order of the transmission priority.The priority control unit refers to a mapping table based on thetransmission priority information and the protocol information includedin the header of each received packet to obtain the processing priorityand the discard priority corresponding to the received packet, andstores the packet in one of queues prepared corresponding to the discardpriority for each processing priority. Stored packets are outputsequentially according to the order of descending processing priority.When the free area capacity of the buffer memory goes under apredetermined threshold value, discard control of the stored packets iscarried out to avoid congestion. In this discard control, packets withhigher discard priority are discarded from queues according to the orderof ascending processing priority until the free area capacity of thebuffer memory reaches a target threshold value.

In the case of the above related art, only one type of the mapping tableis referred for queuing packets. The transmission priority and thediscard priority of each packet are defined in the mapping tablecorresponding to the priority information and the protocol informationincluded in the header of each of received packets. Consequently, in thecase of the related art, it is difficult to control a bandwidth for eachpacket flow and to provide peculiar packet switching services dependingon, for example, the source or destination network of those packets in anode apparatus connecting a plurality of networks such as the Internet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a packet switch anda packet switching method that can control a bandwidth of each ofvariable length packet flows.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a packet switchand a packet switching method that can guarantee the bandwidthpreviously reserved for each of variable length packet flows by acommunication service contract.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a packetswitch and a packet switching method that can perform both bandwidthcontrol and priority control for each variable length packet flow.

It is further another object of the present invention to provide apacket switch and a packet switching method that can perform bothbandwidth control and priority control according to the communicationprotocol of variable length packets.

In order to achieve the above objects, the packet switch of the presentinvention comprises a plurality of input port interfaces, a plurality ofoutput port interfaces, and a packet switching unit for switching eachof variable length packets received from the input port interfaces toone of the output port interfaces corresponding to the destinationaddress of the packet, wherein each of the output port interfacescomprises a buffer memory for storing transmission packets, atransmission priority controller configured so as to classify thetransmission packets received from the packet switching unit based on apredetermined algorithm and queue each of those transmission packetsaccording to transmission priority thereof into one of a plurality ofqueue groups, each of which is assigned an individual bandwidth, atransmission packet read-out controller for accessing the queue groupsof the buffer memory cyclically to read out transmission packets fromeach of those queue groups according to the order of descendingtransmission priority while guaranteeing the bandwidth assigned to eachqueue group, and a packet transmission circuit for transmitting thetransmission packets read out by the transmission packet read-outcontroller to an output port associated with the output port interface.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the transmissionpriority controller is, for example, provided with means for identifyingcommunication service contract and transmission priority related to eachof transmission packets according to the header information of thetransmission packet received from the packet switching unit, thereby toqueue the transmission packet in a queue corresponding to the identifiedtransmission priority in a queue group corresponding to the identifiedcommunication service contract.

More concretely, the transmission priority controller includes, forexample, a first management table for defining the identifier of thequeue group corresponding to the combination of a source network addressand a destination network address and a second management table fordefining a transmission priority corresponding to the combination of acommunication protocol and a packet priority, thereby to identify aqueue group corresponding to each of the transmission packets byreferring to the first management table based on the source networkaddress and the destination network address included in the header ofthe transmission packet, and to identify the transmission priority ofthe transmission packet by referring to the second management tablebased on the communication protocol information and the packet priorityinformation included in the header of the transmission packet.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, thetransmission priority controller identifies a queue group correspondingto each of the transmission packets based on the protocol informationincluded in the header of the transmission packet, then queues thetransmission packet in one of the queues in the identified queue group.In this case, for example, the object of switching is an IP packet whichis identified by the protocol of the network layer of the OSI (OpenSystems Interconnection) reference model, and transmission packets areclassified into a plurality of queue groups according to the protocoltype of the transport layer of the OSI reference model, for example, TCP(Transmission Control Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol), ICMP(Internet Control Message Protocol), or IGMP (Internet Group ManagementProtocol).

In order to guarantee the bandwidth of each queue group, thetransmission packet read-out controller of the present inventionspecifies, for example, a queue group among the queue groups cyclicallyto read out transmission packets, assigns a packet read duration to thespecified queue group depending on the bandwidth thereof, and reads outtransmission packets according to the order of descending transmissionpriority.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, thetransmission packet read-out controller includes a management table fordefining a threshold value in proportion to the bandwidth correspondingto each of the queue groups and a control means for accessing theplurality of queue groups cyclically to read out transmission packetscontinuously from each of the queue groups, until the total length ofthe read out packets exceeds the threshold value defined in themanagement table and for storing the surplus length of the read outpacket exceeding the threshold value as an initial value for use in thecounting of the total packet length in the next read cycle.

The controlling means, for example, checks the initial value forcounting the total packet length associated with one of the queue groupsbefore reading out transmission packets from the queue group. If theinitial value exceeds its threshold value, the controlling meanssubtracts the threshold value from the initial value and switches theobject of packet read out to a next queue group without reading out anypackets from the current queue group. Consequently, variable lengthpackets are read out to an output port, while the bandwidth iscontrolled properly in a long-ranged view.

The algorithm provided for the transmission priority controller toclassify transmission packets, as well as the bandwidth control functionprovided for the transmission packet read-out controller can be modifiedsuitably, for example, in response to a control command issued from anexternal network management terminal.

Another feature of the packet switch of the present invention resides inthat each of the input port interfaces comprises a receiving buffermemory for storing received packets temporarily, a relaying prioritycontroller configured so as to filter the packets received from inputports based on the destination address of the received packets, classifythe filtered received packets according to their priority based on apredetermined algorithm, and queue those classified packets in thereceiving buffer memory according to the priority, and a received packetread-out circuit for reading out the received packets from the receivingbuffer memory according to the order of priority to supply those packetsto the packet switching unit. By transferring the packets according tothe order of priority in both of the input port interfaces and theoutput port interfaces, it is possible to reduce the delay time of highpriority packets within the packet switch more significantly.

The switching method of the present invention for switching variablelength packets comprises the steps of: (a) filtering received packetsreceived from an input port based on the destination address of each ofthose packets; (b) transferring the filtered packets to one of theoutput ports interfaces as transmission packets according to thedestination address included in the header of each of those packets; (c)classifying the transmission packets based on a predetermined algorithmand queuing the classified packets according to transmission priorityinto one of the a plurality of queue groups assigned with a individualbandwidth respectively; (d) accessing the plural queue groups cyclicallyto read out transmission packets from each of those queues according tothe order of transmission priority while guaranteeing the bandwidthassigned to each of the queue groups; and (e) transmitting the read outtransmission packets to an output port.

More specifically, the step (b) of transferring received packetspreferably includes a step (b1) of queuing received packets according topriority in the receiving buffer and a step (b2) of reading out thereceived packets stored in the receiving buffer according to the orderof priority and transferring those packets as transmission packets toone of the output interfaces.

In the step (c) for queuing transmission packets, for example,transmission packets are classified by communication service contractrelated to each of those transmission packets and queued in a queuegroup corresponding to the communication service contract bytransmission priority. Instead of this, transmission packets may beclassified by communication protocol related to each of thosetransmission packets, so that those transmission packets are queuedaccording to transmission priority in a queue group corresponding to theprotocol thereof in the step (c).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram indicating an embodiment of the packet switchof the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration of a network to which the packet switch of thepresent invention applies.

FIG. 3 is a format of packets to be processed by the packet switch ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of a mapping table 40 for defining a transmissionpriority corresponding to both protocol and priority of each packet.

FIG. 5 is an example of a mapping table 50 for defining a bandwidthaccording to both source and destination addresses of each packet.

FIG. 6 is a drawing for explaining the layout of queues formed accordingto transmission priority in a buffer area 83-i prepared for eachbandwidth.

FIG. 7 is an example of a management table provided for a packetread-out circuit 81 shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the functions of the packet read-outcircuit 81.

FIG. 9 is a drawing for explaining the order of packets read out by thepacket read-out circuit 81.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the packetread-out circuit 82-1 shown in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

At first, the configuration and operation of the packet switch of thepresent invention will be described briefly with reference to FIG. 1.

The packet switch I comprises a plurality of control boards (10-1 to10-L) prepared for each of input/output ports, a packet relaying unit(packet switching unit) for relaying packets between those controlboards 10, and a management unit 9 connected to each of the controlboards 10. Each of the control boards 10 comprises an input portinterface 20 and an output port interface 21.

The input port interface 20 includes a packet receiving unit 2 forreceiving packets flowing on a network from an input port IN, a relayingpriority control unit 3 for storing the packets received from the packetreceiving unit in a receiving buffer memory 72 according to thepriority, and a received packet queuing unit 7 for transferring thepackets stored in the receiving buffer memory 72 to the packet relayingunit 4 according to the priority.

The output port interface 21 includes a transmission priority controlunit 5 for storing the packets received from the relaying unit 4selectively in one of a plurality of queue groups formed in atransmission buffer 83 (83-1 to 83-j), a transmission packet queuingunit 8 for reading out the packets stored in the transmission buffer 83according to the transmission priority while guaranteeing the bandwidthassigned to each queue group, and a packet transmission unit 6 fortransmitting the transmission packets read out by the transmissionpacket queuing unit 8 to an output port OUT connected to a network.

The relaying priority control unit 3 is provided with a filteringfunction of referencing to a routing table based on the destinationaddress included in the header of each received packet to determinewhether the transmission packet should be relayed to another network ornot. If it is determined that the transmission packet should be relayedto another network, the packet is given an output port identifier, thenqueued in the receiving buffer memory 72 according to the priority. Moreconcretely, the relaying priority control unit 3 determines a relayingpriority based on the management information (packet priorityinformation, protocol information, network address, etc., which will bedescribed later in detail with reference to FIG. 3) and stores thereceived packet in a queue Qi corresponding to the determined relayingpriority. The queue Qi is one of a plurality of packet queues Q1 to Qnformed by relaying priority in the receiving buffer memory 72.

In the received packet queuing unit 7, packets are read out by thepacket read-out circuit 71 sequentially from the queues formed in thereceiving buffer memory 72 according to the order of descendingpriority, then output to the packet relaying unit 4. The relaying unit 4comprises, for example, a bus or crossbar switch for switching thepackets received from the receiving packet queuing unit 7 provided ineach control board 10 to one of the other control boards identified bythe output port identifier added to the packet.

The transmission priority control unit 5 stores packets received fromthe relaying unit 4 in a transmission buffer memory 83 (83-1 to 83-j) astransmission packets.

A feature of the present invention resides in that the transmissionpriority control unit 5 forms a multi-dimensional queue structure in thetransmission buffer 83 by classifying transmission packets into aplurality of groups base on the header information of each of thosepackets and queuing those transmission packets according to thetransmission priority for each group.

In the illustrated embodiment, the transmission buffer 83 is dividedinto a plurality of buffer areas, each of which includes a plurality ofqueues (Q10 to Q1n) . . . (Qj0 to Qjn), so that a total of j queuegroups 83-1 to 83-j are formed. The transmission priority control unit5, as will be described later, refers to the mapping tables 40 and 50,which will be described later with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, based onthe control information (e.g., packet priority information, protocolinformation, network address, etc. as will be described later in detailwith reference to FIG. 3) included in the header of each packet, therebydetermining the transmission priority and the queue group of thetransmission packet. Each of the queue groups, as will be describedlater, is assigned with an individual bandwidth, and each oftransmission packets is stored in the queue Qik in one of those queuegroups corresponding to the transmission priority.

The transmission packet queuing unit 8 includes first stage read-outcircuits 82 (82-1 to 82-j) for reading out packets according to thetransmission priority from each queue group (buffer area 83-i) and anext stage read-out circuit 81 for outputting the packets read out bythose first-stage read-out circuits to the transmission unit 6 accordingto the bandwidth assigned to each queue group.

The packet transmission unit 6 transmits packets received from theread-out circuit 81 to an output port OUT. The output port identifieradded by the relaying priority control unit 3 to each received packet isremoved by the transmission priority control unit 5 or the packettransmission unit 6.

Grouping of transmission packets performed by the transmission prioritycontrol unit 5 is made, to put in the concrete, for each communicationservice contract between a line provider and a network user or customeruser group. The read-out circuit 81 reads out transmission packetssequentially from each of the queue groups so as to adapt to thecommunication service level promised by each contract.

A communication service contract mentioned here means a bandwidthguarantee contract exchanged between a network user and a network lineprovider (or an Internet communication provider). More concretely, itmeans a contract between a business company or a public agency and aline provider. According to such a contract, a communication servicelevel including such items as communication quality (e.g., packet delaytime, delay variability, packet discard rate, etc.), an assignedbandwidth, etc. is guaranteed for each user. Each of those network lineproviders is thus responsible for the contracted communication servicelevel with respect to each packet flow on the subject network.

A network manager can change the packet queuing algorithm in thetransmission priority control unit 5 and the read-out algorithm in theread-out circuits 81 and 82 via the management unit 9 by issuing acommand, for example, from the management terminal PT shown with areference numeral 16Cn in FIG. 2.

The packet queuing algorithm used by the transmission priority controlunit 5 can be changed by updating the contents in the mapping tables 40and 50 and the packet read-out algorithm used by the read-out circuit 81can be changed by updating the contents in the management table 60 aswill be described later.

Next, a configuration of the packet switch of the present invention, aswell as how to use the packet switch will be described with reference toFIG. 2.

The network shown in FIG. 2 comprises sub-networks 15An, 15Bn, 15Am, and15Bm, and a backbone network 15Cn for connecting those sub-networks toeach other. Each of the sub-networks 15An to 15Bm is connected to packetcommunication terminals 16An, 16Bn, 16Am, and 16Bm respectively.

Each of the sub-networks 15An to 15Bm is provided with packet switches1An, 1Bn, 1Am, and 1Bm. The packet switches 1An and 1Bn are connected toa packet switches 1Cn in the network 15Cn through the lines 14An and14Bn respectively. The packet switches 1Am and 1Bm are connected to apacket switch 1Cm in the network 15Cn through the lines 14Am and 14Bmrespectively.

In the backbone network 15Cn are connected the packet switches 1Cn and1Cm to each other through a line 14C.

The packet switches 1 of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 are usedas packet switches 1Cn and 1Cm of the backbone network. 16Cn indicates amanagement terminal operated by the manager of the network 15Cn.According to the commands issued from this management terminal 16Cn, thecontrol information held in the packet switches 1Cn and 1Cm, that is,the contents in the tables 40, 50, and 60 can be updated.

Generally, a packet communication can perform a multiplex communication,wherein a bandwidth indicating a communication capability of a line perunit time is divided to assign the bandwidth to a plurality of users.

In the case of the network shown in FIG. 2, the communication line 14Cof the backbone network is shared by the communication between thesub-networks 15An and 15Am and the communication between thesub-networks 15Bn and 15Bm. Packet communication allows each line to beused effectively through the statistical multiplexing effect by sharinga line among a plurality of communications such way and by assigning abandwidth to each of those communications only when it is neededactually.

In this case, it is assumed that the communication between thesub-networks 15An and 15Am is executed under the contract A and thecommunication between the sub-networks 15Bn and 15Bm is executed underthe contract B, and the network provider who owns the backbone network15C provides packet flows on the line 14C with packet switching servicesaccording to the service levels guaranteed by the contracts A and B.This example is equivalent to a case in which the sub-networks 15An and15Am are, for example, of the head office and a branch office of acompany A and the sub-network 15Bn and 15Bm are of the head office and abranch office of a company B, and each of those companies A and Bperform their intranet communications according to the contracts withthe Internet communication provider C.

The packet switch of the present invention provides the following twoforms of usage for a plurality of contract parties who share the line14C.

The first form of usage distributes the bandwidth of the line 14C toboth contracts A and B equally or with a weight according to thecontract contents respectively, through the rate based scheduling. Ifthere are a plurality of packet flows for the same contract, packetswitching is carried out equally for each of those packet flows oraccording to the protocol and the packet priority of each packet flow.

The second form of usage allows only one contract, for example, thepacket flow of the contract A to use the full bandwidth of the line 14Cthrough the head-of-line scheduling. In this case, the guaranteedbandwidth is set as 0 for all the packet flows of other contracts exceptfor the contract A, and packet switching for these contracts are carriedout using the residual bandwidth of the contract A. According to thissecond form of usage, the user of a contract B can make a communicationwith a less cost by using the residual bandwidth of the contract A,although the communication quality is not guaranteed for the contract B.If there are a plurality of packet flows for the same contract, packetswitching is carried out equally to each of the packet flows oraccording to the protocol and the priority of each packet flow just likein the first form of usage.

None of the conventional packet switches is provided with such thefunction for guaranteeing communication services for respectivecontracts stated above and the function for controlling transmission ofa plurality of packet flows under the same contract according to thepriority with respect to such variable length packets as IP packets.

FIG. 3 shows a format of the packets handled by the packet switch of thepresent invention.

A packet 30 comprises a header portion 31 and a data portion 32. Theheader portion 31 includes packet priority information 33, a servicerequest 34, protocol information 35, a source address 36, and adestination address 37. The packet priority information 33 indicates theprocessing priority of the packet. The service request 34 indicates theinformation of a service requested by the packet, for example, a requestfor reliability and high speed performance. These items are equivalentto the priority (0 to 2nd bits), the low delay request (3rd bit), thehigh through-put request (4th bit), and the high reliability information(5th bit) of the TOS (Type Of Service) field defined in the header ofeach IP packet used for the Internet.

The protocol information 35 indicates the type of the communicationprotocol used for the packet, that is, the type of the packet. If thepacket 30 is an IP packet, the protocol information 35 identifies thetype of the transport layer header 39 following the header 31. For themost frequently used protocols, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), UDP(User Datagram Protocol), ICMP(Internet Control Message Protocol), andIGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) are well known.

The source address 36 indicates the address of a source device fromwhich the packet is transmitted. The destination address 37 indicatesthe address of a destination device to which the packet is forwarded.These addresses correspond to the SA (Source IP Address) and the DA(Destination IP Address) in a case of IP address system.

The IP address comprises an IP network address and an IP host address.The IP network address identifies a sub-network connected to a source ordestination terminal and the IP host address identifies the source ordestination terminal. The communication service contract described abovecan be identified with the combination of such a source IP networkaddress and a destination IP network address.

Next, description will be made for the mapping tables 40 and 50 referredby the transmission priority control unit 5 to classify transmissionpackets.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the mapping table 40 referred to determinetransmission priorities among a plurality of packet flows transmittedunder respective contracts.

The mapping table 40 is a two dimensional matrix arranging, for example,the protocol 35 included in each packet header 31 as column information41 and the priority information 33 included in the packet header 31 asrow information 42, wherein a value is assigned to indicate thetransmission priority corresponding to each combination of the priorityinformation 33 and the protocol 35. Each value (0 to 7) of thetransmission priority defined in the mapping table 40 also indicates thevalue of a second index k of the queue Qik formed in the transmissionbuffer area 83-i shown in FIG. 1.

The type of the protocol 35 may be classified into, for example, TCP andUDP according to the transport layer protocol of the OSI referencemodel. It may also be classified according to a layer upper than thetransport layer, for example, into HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol),FTP (File Transfer Protocol), TELNET (Terminal Connection), SMTP (SimpleMail Transfer Protocol), and etc. depending on the port number if theprotocol type is TCP.

Generally, in the case of an interactive type or connection orientednetwork protocol such as TCP, the source terminal transmits a nextpacket after receiving an ACK packet from the destination terminal. Onthe contrary, in the case of a batch type or connectionless networkprotocol such as UDP, the source terminal can transmit packets one afteranother without waiting for an ACK packet from the destination terminal.Consequently, if a higher transmission priority is given to packet flowsof the interactive type or connection oriented network protocol and alower priority is given to packet flows of the batch type orconnectionless network protocol in the mapping table 40, it is able toimprove the total through-put of the packet switch 1.

FIG. 5 shows a configuration of the mapping table 50 referred by thetransmission priority control unit 5 to identify the contract associatedwith each of the transmission packets and to specify a queue groupcorresponding to the contract from among the queue groups 83-1 to 83-jshown in FIG. 1.

The mapping table 50 is a two-dimensional matrix arranging the sourcenetwork address included in the source address 36 of each packet header31 as column information 51 and the destination network address includedin the destination address 37 of the packet header 31 as row information52, wherein an identification number (contract identifier) of queuegroup is assigned corresponding to each combination of a source networkaddress and a destination network address.

The reason why transmission packets are buffered in queue groups bycontract in the present invention is that reading of packets from thetransmission buffer 83 is controlled so as to provide each transmissionpacket flow with a contracted bandwidth. In the embodiment shown in FIG.5, a contract is identified by the combination of a source networkaddress and a destination network address, and the identification numberof a queue group corresponding to each contract is defined in themapping table 50. Each contracted bandwidth is shown in parentheses forreference in the mapping table 50.

A queue group identification number as described above is assumed as thevalue of the first index i of the queue Qik formed in the transmissionbuffer area 83-i. In the illustrated example, the communication betweena terminal connected to the sub-network Am and a terminal connected tothe sub-network An is carried out under the contract A to which thebandwidth BW1 is assigned. It will thus be understood that packets forthis contract A are queued in the queue group 83-1. For each combinationof a source network address and a destination network address, which isnot included in any specific contract, a null indicated with a symbol“−” is set. Packets having the address information corresponding any ofsuch combinations are discarded by the transmission priority controlunit 5. Discarding of such packets that are communicated betweennon-contracted networks may contribute to improve the security of thepacket communication.

The transmission priority control unit 5 refers to the two types ofmapping tables 40 and 50 as described above in order to queuetransmission packets in the transmission buffer 83. Consequently, aplurality of queue groups 83-1 to 83-j are formed in the transmissionbuffer 83. Each of those queue groups 83-1 to 83-j has an identificationnumber defined in the mapping table 50 as shown in FIG. 1. And, in eachof those queue groups are formed a plurality of queues corresponding toa transmission priority defined in the mapping table 40 respectively asshown in FIG. 6.

Transmission packets stored in the queue groups 83-1 to 83-j are readout by the packet read-out circuits 82-1 to 82-j according to thetransmission priority for each queue group, then transmitted to thepacket transmission unit 6 by the packet read-out circuit 81, while thecontracted bandwidth of each queue group is guaranteed.

Hereunder, the operation of the packet read-out circuit 81 will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 shows a configuration of the management table 60 which isreferred by the packet read-out circuit 81 to control bandwidths. Themanagement table 60 comprises a plurality of records corresponding tothe queue groups 83-1 to 83-j. Each of those records comprises a queuegroup identification number 61, a bandwidth 62 assigned to each queuegroup, and a counter area 63 for counting the length of transmissiondata read out from each queue group.

FIG. 8 shows a flow chart for a control operation performed by thepacket read-out circuit 81.

The packet read-out circuit 81 initializes count values in the counterarea 63 of the management table 60 and the value of a parameter p tozero respectively (steps 102 and 104), then increments the value of theparameter p (step 106). After this, the packet read-out circuit 81compares the value of CNT(p) of the counter 63 with the value of BW(p)of the bandwidth 62 in the p-th record of the management table 60. Ifthe CNT(p) is equal to or more than the BW(p), the packet read-outcircuit 81 subtracts the value of BW(p) from the value of CNT(p) (step120), then compares the parameter p with the maximum value j (step 124).If the value of the parameter p is less than the maximum value j, thecontrol sequence returns to step 106, otherwise returns to step 106after clearing the value of parameter p to zero.

If the CNT(p) value is less than the BW(p) value in step 108, the packetread-out circuit 81 reads out a packet from the p-th queue group QG(p)of the output buffer 83 and transmits the packet to the packettransmission unit 6 (step 110). If there is no output packet to be readout in the queue group QG(p)(step 112), the packet read-out circuit 81clears the counter CNT(p) value to zero (step 122), then performs theprocessing of step 124. When the packet read-out circuit 81 reads out apacket from the queue group QG(p), the packet read-out circuit 81 addsthe packet length to the counter CNT(p) (step 114), then returns to step108.

FIG. 9 shows an explanatory view of a sequence of packets read outthrough the read control operation described above.

It is assumed here that packets are read out from three queue groupsQG(1), QG(2), and QG(3) to which bandwidths BW(1), BW(2), and BW(3) areassigned, respectively, for simplifying the description. The rate of theabove bandwidths is assumed to be BW(1):BW(2):BW(3)=3:2:1.

According to the control flow chart shown in FIG. 8, the value ofparameter p is changed so that each queue group can get a packet readcycle cyclically. Packets are read out from each queue groupcontinuously until the total length of read packets exceeds the value ofa contracted bandwidth BW(p) registered in the management table 60. Whenthe total length of the read packets exceeds the value of the contractedbandwidth BW(p), the packet read-out circuit 81 subtracts the contractedbandwidth BW(p) value from the counter CNT(p) value, then transfers thepacket read cycle to next queue group.

Consequently, as shown in FIG. 9, when packets P1, P2, and P3 are readout from the first queue group QG(1), the read cycle is transferred tothe second queue group QG(2). At this time, the counter CNT(1) value ofthe queue group QG(1) indicates the length of the residual part of thepacket P3 shown with a dotted line.

When packets P4 and P5 are read out from the second queue group QG(2),the read cycle is transferred to the third queue group QG(3). Since thecontracted bandwidth of the third queue group QG(3) is small, the readcycle is transferred to the first queue group QG(1) when one packet P6is read out in this example.

When packets P7 and P8 are read out from the first queue group QG(1),the read cycle is transferred to the second queue group QG(2). In thisexample, since a long packet P5 was read out from the second queue groupQG(2) in the previous read cycle, the value of the counter CNT(2)exceeds the value of the contracted bandwidth BW(2). Consequently, inthis read cycle, no packet is read out from the second queue group QG(2)and the read cycle is transferred to the third queue group QG(3) afterperforming subtraction on the value of the counter CNT(2). By repeatingthe read operations stated above, a series of packets are sent out tothe output port OUT sequentially, in the order of P1, P2, . . . , P14.Thus, although the contracted bandwidth is exceeded temporarily, as justlike outputting of packets P4 and P5 from the queue group QG(2), thecontracted bandwidths of all the queue groups are guaranteed for packetswitching in a long-range view.

According to the controlling of packet read-out described above, if itis detected that there is no transmission packet in any one of the queuegroups, a chance to read out packets comes round to residual queuegroups in a shorter cycle. Consequently, it becomes possible forresidual queue groups to effectively use the bandwidth assigned for theempty queue group. In addition, if all the queue groups except onebecome empty, read cycles are given to the residual queue group almostcontinuously. As a result, the queue group can use the bandwidth of theoutput line all to itself, thus receiving a benefit of services over itscontracted level.

In FIG. 5, the j-th queue group is used to store such transmissionpackets that have an extra combination of a source network address and adestination network address other than that correspond to bandwidthguarantee contracts registered in the table 50. For the j-th queuegroup, assigned is a residual bandwidth BWj which is a residualbandwidth of the output line left by the other contractors. The user ofthe residual bandwidth BWj shares the residual bandwidth with othernon-contract users, so the user can receive a benefit of less-costcommunications, although the communication service quality is not sogood.

According to the packet read-out control of the present invention, whena bandwidth guaranteed contractor stops communications, the bandwidthfor the contractor is released to the users of the residual bandwidthBWj. It is assumed that, as an exaggerated example, a specific user Xmakes a contract for guaranteeing the exclusive use of the fullbandwidth of the output line 14C and the residual bandwidth of the userX is assigned to the other users. In this case, by modifying the controlflow chart shown in FIG. 8, it is also able to realize such a packetread-out control of the head-of-line scheduling that release the fullbandwidth of the line 14C to the other users until the next packet flowof the user X arrives whenever the packet flow of the user X stops.

In the case of such a head-of-the-line scheduling sequence, packets arebasically read out repetitively from a queue group of the user X. Ifthere is no packet to be read out in the queue group of the user X, oneof the other queue groups is accessed. In this case, packets may be readout one after another by checking whether there is a new packet arrivedin the queue group of the user X each time one packet is read out.According to the present invention, therefore, it is possible to realizenot only the first usage form, but also the second usage form, therebyproviding communication services appropriately to both of the bandwidthcontractor and other non-contractors.

The read-out circuit 82 controls the order of packets to be read outfrom each queue group, for example, the order of the packets P1, P2, P3,P7, . . . in the first queue group QG(1). In other words, the contractedbandwidth BW(i) assigned to each queue group is further divided by theread-out circuit 82 so as to be assigned to a plurality of queues Qi toQin in the queue group.

In this case, how to assign a bandwidth to each queue is varied widely.In the most basic method, packets are read out from the queues in theorder of descending priority and subsequent priority queue is accessedto read out packets when the higher priority queue becomes empty.Instead of this method, it is also possible to assign a bandwidth toeach queue according to the order of priority beforehand, then give adifferent read-out time to each queue just like the method used by theread-out circuit 81. In this case, the controlling procedure is modifiedso that the queue group QG(p) is replaced with the queue Q(p) in theflow chart shown in FIG. 8.

In order to simplify controlling of packet reading more, it is alsopossible to assign the number of packets readable continuously for eachqueue beforehand regardless of the packet length so that packets areread out from the next queue when the assigned number of packets areread out from one queue according to the order of descending priority.It is also possible to read out packets one by one from each queuesimply according to the order of descending priority, if necessary.

According to the flaw of output packets from the output buffer 83 to theoutput port OUT, the read-out circuit 82 is located in front of theread-out circuit 81. However, in a viewpoint of the read-out controlprocedure, a queue group is determined first by the read-out circuit 81,then the read-out circuit 82 corresponding to the determined queue groupreads out packets from one of the queues in the group as shown in theflow chart in FIG. 8.

In the packet switch shown in FIG. 1, a read-out circuit 82 is disposedfor each queue group in order to make it easier to understand thepresent invention. In this case, while packets are read out from onequeue group and passed to the next stage read-out circuit 81, none ofthe read-out circuits 82 in other queue groups transmits packets.Consequently, all the packets stored in the output buffer 83 may be readout by one read-out circuit 82 by switching over the queue groups inturn, in an actual application.

In addition, if an address table for indicating the addresses of thefirst packets of the respective queues is prepared for each queue groupand if the address table is referred in accordance with the queue groupQG(p) specified in step 110 in FIG. 8 to read out packets from a queueidentified by the priority, the functions of both read-out circuits 81and 82 can be realized by a processor or a dedicated hardware circuit.

FIG. 10 indicates the packet read-out circuit 82 in another embodiment.

This packet read-out circuit 82 comprises a complete priority typecontrolling circuit 821 for controlling the read out of packets so thatall the packets are read out from the first priority queue, then fromthe next and subsequent priority queues sequentially, a rate basedscheduler type of controlling circuit 822 for controlling the readingout of packets so that packets are read out from a plurality of queuesin a queue group according to each assigned bandwidth, and a selectorcircuit 823 for selecting any one of the two controlling circuitsaccording to a control signal from the management unit 9. One of thecontrolling circuits 821 and 822 is activated according to the controlsignal from the management unit 9. According to this embodiment, theread-out mode of the transmission packet in the packet switch 1 can beswitched over in a moment by a command supplied from a managementterminal operated by the network manager.

In the above embodiment, description has been made for packet switchingin the network layer of the OSI reference model represented by IPpackets, but the technical concept of the present invention may alsoapply to the data link layer of the OSI reference model, therebycontrolling the bandwidth for each of the queue groups described above,for example, in an ETHERNET LAN switch.

In the embodiment described with reference to FIG. 5, the bandwidth ofeach queue group is controlled under each contract identified from bothsource and destination network addresses. The present invention may alsoapply to another embodiment in which the transmission priority controlunit 5 classifies transmission packets by protocol, for example, TCP andother protocols into two groups, and transmission packets are queuedinto a plurality of queues for each queue group according to the packetpriority included in the header information of each packet. In thiscase, bandwidths may be assigned to queue groups in such a manner thatthe whole bandwidth of an output line is assigned only to TCP packetflows and the residual bandwidth is assigned to the packet flows ofother protocols.

As to be understood from the above description, according to the presentinvention, it is possible to provide a packet switching in which thepacket transmission priority is changed for each network connected tothe node apparatus (packet switch) in a communication network such asthe Internet in which a plurality of networks are connected through acommon line. In addition, according to the present invention, it is alsopossible to provide a packet switch and a packet switching method thatcan change the transmission priority even with a communication protocolas needed while the communication bandwidth is guaranteed for each useraccording to the communication service contract.

What is claimed is:
 1. A packet switch, comprising: a plurality of inputport interfaces; a plurality of output port interfaces, and a packetrelaying unit for switching variable length packets received from saidinput port interfaces to one of said output port interfacescorresponding to the destination address of each of said packets,wherein each of said output port interfaces comprises: a buffer memoryfor storing transmission packets, a transmission priority controller forclassifying transmission packets, passed from said packet relaying unitinto a plurality of queue groups to which specific bandwidths areassigned respectively, according to the header information of each ofsaid transmission packets and for queuing said transmission packets insaid buffer memory so as to form a plurality of queues according totransmission priority in each queue group, a packet read-out controllerfor reading out transmission packets according to the transmissionpriority while guaranteeing the bandwidth assigned to each of said queuegroups, and a packet transmission circuit for transmitting saidtransmission packets read out by said packet read-out controller to anoutput port associated with the output port interface, wherein saidtransmission priority controller includes a first management table fordefining an identifier for each of said queue groups corresponding to acombination of a source network address and a destination networkaddress and a second management table for defining the transmissionpriority corresponding to a combination of a communication protocol anda packet priority, and wherein said transmission priority controlleridentifies a queue group corresponding to each of said transmissionpackets by referring to said first management table based on the sourceand destination network addresses included in the header of thetransmission packet and identifies the transmission prioritycorresponding to the transmission packet by referring to said secondmanagement table based on the, communication protocol information andpacket priority information included in the header of the transmissionpacket.
 2. A packet switch according to claim 1, wherein said packetread-out controller comprises: a management table for defining athreshold value in proportion to said bandwidth corresponding to each ofsaid queue groups; and control means for accessing a plurality of saidqueue groups cyclically to read out transmission packets continuouslyfrom each of said queue groups until the total length of read outpackets exceeds the threshold value defined in said management table,and for storing a surplus length of a packet read out over the thresholdvalue as an initial value for counting the total length of packets inthe next cycle to read out packets from the queue group.
 3. A packetswitch according to claim 2, wherein said control means includes meansfor checking, before reading transmission packets from each of saidqueue groups, the initial value for counting the total length of packetsassociated with each of said queue groups, subtracting the thresholdvalue from the initial value if the initial value of one queue groupexceeds the threshold value, and switching a queue group to be an objectfor reading out transmission packets therefrom, from said one queuegroup to a next queue group without reading transmission packets fromsaid one queue group.
 4. A packet switch, comprising: a plurality ofinput port interfaces; a plurality of output port interfaces, and apacket relaying unit for switching variable length packets received fromsaid input port interfaces to one of said output port interfacescorresponding to the destination address of each of said packets,wherein each of said output port interfaces comprises: a buffer memoryfor storing transmission packets, a transmission priority controller forclassifying transmission packets, passed from said packet relaying unitinto a plurality of queue groups to which specific bandwidths areassigned respectively, according to the header information of each ofsaid transmission packets and for queuing said transmission packets insaid buffer memory so as to form a plurality of queues according totransmission priority in each of said queue groups, a packet read-outcontroller for reading out transmission packets according to thetransmission priority while guaranteeing the bandwidth assigned to eachof said queue groups, and a packet transmission circuit for transmittingsaid transmission packets read out by said packet read-out controller toan output port associated with the output port interface, wherein saidtransmission priority controller specifies, based on the protocolinformation included in the header of each of transmission packetspassed from said packet relaying unit, the queue group corresponding tothe transmission packets, whereby each of said transmission packets isqueued in one of the queues in the specified queue group.
 5. A packetswitch according to claim 4, wherein said packet read-out controllercomprises: a management table for defining a threshold value inproportion to said bandwidth corresponding to each of said queue groups;and control means for accessing a plurality of said queue groupscyclically to read out transmission packets continuously from each ofsaid queue groups until the total length of read out packets exceeds thethreshold value defined in said management table, and for storing asurplus length of a packet read out over the threshold value as aninitial value for counting the total length of packets in the next cycleto read out packets from each of said queue groups.
 6. A packet switchaccording to claim 4, wherein said control means includes means forchecking, before reading transmission packets from each of said queuegroups, the initial value for counting the total length of packetsassociated with each of said queue groups, subtracting the thresholdvalue from the initial value if the initial value of one queue groupexceeds the threshold value, and switching a queue group to be an objectfor reading out transmission packets therefrom, from said one queuegroup to a next queue of group without reading transmission packets fromsaid one queue group.